30 Perfect Christmas Appetizers

Set the tone for a holiday feast with beautiful, delicious appetizers. Whether you're hosting a casual get-together or a lavish affair, these small bites are perfect for any occasion. From bacon candy to a broccoli cheese dip, here are superb Christmas appetizers.

Set the tone for a holiday feast with beautiful, delicious appetizers. Whether you're hosting a casual get-together or a lavish affair, these small bites are perfect for any occasion. From bacon candy to a broccoli cheese dip, here are superb Christmas appetizers.

Olives marinated in citrus juice, garlic and spicy crushed red pepper become a sensational cocktail-party snack. Put these out after dinner, as well, for any guests who want something light and simple to snack on.

Slow-roasting white chocolate makes the cocoa butter in it silky, rich and caramel-like, a technique championed by pastry chef Belinda Leong. Valrhona’s Ivoire white baking chocolate has just the right amount of cocoa butter for this spread from mkgallery’s Justin Chapple.

This dip is lighter than many versions of baba ghanoush because there’s no tahini weighing it down. The pure, smoky flavor of the charred eggplant and the wonderful aromas of the fresh parsley, cilantro and mint really come through.

Emily Kaiser Thelin created these crispy hush puppies—cornmeal dumplings—by adapting a recipe from chef Susan McCreight Lindeborg. Emily serves them with a version of the creamy French sauce remoulade, which she spikes with Tabasco and a little ketchup.

To create these wonderful tapas, José Andrés makes a batter with crunchy nubs of chopped cauliflower florets, fries spoonfuls in a skillet and then tops the fritters with yogurt sauce and a dollop of caviar.

Spaghetti squash gets its name because once it’s cooked, you can use a fork to pull the flesh into long, thin strands. Jonathon Sawyer makes his own curry and cooks his own chickpeas for this vegetarian dish, but this simplified recipe calls for store-bought curry paste and canned chickpeas. Sawyer roasts the seeds from the squash and uses them as a garnish; pumpkin seeds from the supermarket are a fine substitute.

Inspired by the classic combination of bagels with lox and cream cheese, Tory Miller devised this variation using smoked, locally raised trout and homemade English muffins. It would be equally good on other breads, such as a baguette, or even the bagel that inspired it.

Jerry Traunfeld toasts and grinds whole coriander seeds before pureeing them with roasted cauliflower, tahini paste, lemon and cilantro. Simplify the recipe by using ground coriander from a bottle to season this bright, tangy recipe.

This recipe for arancini—fried risotto balls—comes from Renato Poliafito, who got it from his Sicilian cousin Emanuele Sanfilippo. “Renato is obsessed with arancini,” says Matt Lewis, “especially this version with toasted pistachios.” These arancini are the size of tangerines, filled with creamy, cheesy rice, studded with nuts and green peas and encased in a great crunchy crust.